INTERVENTION OF THE HOLY SEE
AT THE 59th GENERAL SESSION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OF THE UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR)

ADDRESS OF H.E. MSGR. SILVANO M. TOMASI

GenevaTuesday, 7 October 2008

Mr. Chairman,

1. The spotlight of public opinion currently is placed on
the crisis of financial markets, on the present form of economic organization,
and on the irresponsibility and greed of some managers that led to it. The
consequences of this enormously complicated crisis exert a grave impact on
vulnerable groups in society and give concrete evidence of the
interconnectedness and lack of equity in today’s world. Additional challenges of
great urgency confront the international community. Climate change leads to
scarcity of food and lack of water, to the degradation of the environment and an
increase of natural disasters. Together with related conflicts in some regions,
all these factors result in an intensification of forced displacement of people
and a greater uncertainty about our ability to provide them with the protection
and assistance they need. This moment, on the other hand, can reawaken the
awareness that it is really a common responsibility to determine whether the
‘global village’ thrives or suffers.

2. Natural and man-made disasters expose millions of persons and families to
conditions of extreme poverty and to violations of their basic human rights.
Such unbearable situations make it impossible for them to remain in their usual
place of residence, much as they would like to do so. Looking at the future, the
condition of uprooted people appears more bleak and ambiguous than ever. In view
of the emergence and overlapping of these new complexities, our discussions
about protection can be confronted with significant obstacles. Political
responses, immediate assistance, and technical know-how are necessary. However,
a clear ethical dimension also must be acknowledged and should be placed at the
center of debate as we formulate decisions on how to move forward with adequate
protection.

The Delegation of the Holy See has participated with great interest in the
discussions about protection. It has supported the priority accorded this urgent
topic in recent UNHCR initiatives like the Conclusions on the Provision on
International Protection Including Through Complementary Forms of Protection
(2005), the Conclusion on Women and Girls at Risk (2006) the Conclusion on
Children at Risk (2007), the Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges
(2007), and the Agenda for Protection (2002). In fact, the UNHCR was mandated by
the General Assembly to extend its protection capacities to new groups:
stateless people, returnees, and certain groups of internally displaced persons.
Over the years, the concepts of "group determination (prima facie)" and
of "temporary protection" were introduced when considering situations of mass
influx movements. In addition, regional agreements and the cluster approach
enlarged the field of protection and the capacity to respond.

3. The process of alerting States about new demands for protection shows both
a pragmatic method and a dynamic understanding of the implications of the 1951
Refugee Convention and its related Protocol of 1967. In the same spirit, through
regional instruments, States have examined their respective local reality and
have agreed upon a more comprehensive and suitable approach by adapting
juridical provisions to the evolution of forcible displacement and to
geographical conditions. The latest General Conclusion on International
Protection, now submitted for approval, rightly points out some current problems
of intolerance and failure to meet the rights of asylum-seekers while it
simultaneously encourages maintenance of relevant international humanitarian and
human rights law as a necessary point of reference. Indeed there seems to be an
urgent need to expand reflection and statutory provisions to cover the whole
range of the constantly changing situations of forcibly uprooted people.

4. The international community has managed to enact clear and courageous
instruments to protect refugees from violence and persecution through the 1951
Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol, and through additional regional
agreements. Existing refugee instruments constitute the start of a continuum, at
the opposite end of which we could place the conventions and agreements enacted
by the United Nations and by the International Labour Organization in order to
protect labour migrants and their families. At present, between these two policy
"poles", are situated millions of other persons forcibly uprooted by
desertification, famine, climate change, generalized oppression and abuse of
their human rights. Many of these people remain within their own country without
receiving the protection they need, and many cross the borders of neighbouring
countries in search of relief. Some of these uprooted persons may come under the
mandate of the UNHCR, as do those who become stateless. Many of them do not fit
the typology of refugees or migrant workers, but the international community
cannot ignore their plight nor can it deny the ethical obligation to extend
protection to them, as difficult as this task can be.

5. In our interconnected world, we are linked with all displaced people by
our common humanity and by the realization that the globalization of justice and
solidarity is the best guarantee for peace and a common future. The question
then to be addressed is of how to start a process to formalize ways and means
for the protection of the millions of persons at the center of the continuum:
the responsibility to protect them; providing assistance for immediate survival;
criteria for their acceptance in other places; the structures of coordination.
Existing best practices and human rights obligations can serve as a starting
point to move toward a juridical instrument.

6. The experience of the international community with the implementation of
legally binding conventions shows the value of the experts’ committees that
monitor and advise a converging interpretation of their content. Perhaps a
similar group for the Refugee Convention can be a useful complement, possibly
within the existing structures of the UNHCR, at this moment when courts, at
times, diverge widely in their interpretative decisions.

7. In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the continued effort to safeguard the human
rights of all forcibly displaced people is in line with a consistent ethic of
life and with an ever more complete implementation of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, whose 60th anniversary we mark this year.
Displacement is not a phenomenon isolated from other social realities. It is the
result of political decisions, of neglect and lack of preventive action, and
also of unforeseen natural events. It falls within the responsibility of the
State and the international community. An adequate response, therefore, is not
possible without coherence in the action of agencies and actors involved and
mandated to work for the best solutions. The creative alertness required for
such solutions should move the international community to undertake new steps in
protection. While juridical instruments are necessary, ultimately a culture of
solidarity and the elimination of the root causes of displacement will sustain
the protection system.